Trending News|September 22, 2015 09:58 EDT
UEFA 2015 News: League Discussing Creation of Third European Cup Competition
UEFA officials recently held talks discussing the possibility of creating a third European club tournament, which is seen as one that would include dropouts from the first two qualifying rounds of the Europa League
As reported by Bleacher Report, the idea is for clubs that don't reach the group stages of Europe's second-tier competition to be granted entry into the third tournament.
An Associated Press report says that the proposal was met with a positive reaction during a recent meeting of all 54 UEFA members in Malta. Should it push thru, the proposal would not be implemented "until at least 2018."
"We are really supportive of this," Football federation of Ukraine executive director Volodymyr Geninson said. "For them, it will give opportunities not to finish the [European competitions] in August. It will give them opportunity to play in September and October."
The AP report also says the UEFA president Michel Platini is interested in giving "smaller nations access to competitions."
James Dudko of Bleacher Report opines that while a third tournament is an admirable proposal from UEFA, it might find itself lacking credibility in practice - something that has been a problem since the Europa League took over the old UEFA Cup.Dudko also points out that should a third tournament be created, it would be vital to ensure that the competition is taken seriously by the participating clubs.
Dudko also points out that many Premier League clubs already find the Europa League schedule enough of a problem, and that such a competition may only be attractive to smaller clubs, as opposed to clubs like West Ham and Southampton - both of which failed to reach the group stage this season.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, for one, also feels that a Europa League schedule already makes it harder to navigate Premier League fixtures, according to Chris Beesley of the Liverpool Echo.
The Associate Press says that any third cup tournament could be settled by the end of the calendar year, instead of stretching across a full league campaign.
